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Aquascape has me bummed

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I am very saddened with my aquascape right now. My birthday is in 6 days and I am going to give myself a gift by redoing ost of the tank(left side and the foreground). A few other things are that I am having some algae problems and I have 2 shrimp I have not seen in a while. I have pressurized CO2 and a Quad T5HO at a total of 96 watts. I have a $45-$50 budget for the plants. I am thinking of Blyxa Japonica, Ludwigia Cuba, and maybe a carpeting plant. Here is a picture of my tank as in right now.Tank 3.2.14.jpg

Please recommend some plants, placement, and what you would recommend to do ith my Dwiftwood/Moss situation.
Thanks you

Start by painting the back of your aquarium black. Many people on here do this as it helps to make fish pop, add security so the fish aren't being viewed from all sides, and its aesthetically pleasing. I'd suggest getting a new piece of driftwood. I've seen a lot of bad looking setups and they always consist of that type of wood. It looks like a knotty piece of root, its unnatural and doesn't look good in an aquarium. Get rid of the wood. From what I can tell you seem to have a species of rotala in the middle, to the left of your wood. Maybe purchase more of that species and use it to fill in the back portion of the tank on the left and in the middle. If you start by doing these things your tank will definitely look better.

Black background like suggested. also keep the wood in the middle. I would put two tall plants on each side of it. Some medium plants next. Then a carpet plant in the front. Plant species ill leave up to you. Dustin's fish tanks has a lot of good plants for a good price.

What do you want this aquarium to be? How big is? How about a bigger picture? As it stands now the right bit looks like a Dutch style scape just before the weekly pruning and the left is messy largely because it's all big leaf plants and of different shapes.

A good scape has very few focal points but those are rather obvious. On this one the only focal point is the wood and that's not the nicest part of the tank.

Head over to the tropica website and look at some layouts would be my advice. That site is great for inspiration

I agree with talldutchie. The tank just looks a bit jumbled and overgrown in some spots - you might try just shifting the wood to the side, and trim/move some plants around - a couple plants to screen part of the wood would soften the look of it a bit and not stop the eye there. No need for a total rescape unless you are looking to do something completely different.

Take out all of your plants...clean the tank very well and post a photo of only your piece of wood inside the tank. For a planted tank(minus dutch of course) you really need to start with a strong hardscape and plan/build your plants around that. You would be amazed how you could take all of those same plants and hardscape pieces and make a tank that looks 1000X better and totally different with improved placement.

Taking it all out and adding it back slowly is a great idea. You might find you don't need to drop more cash on it (unless you want to).

There are some aesthetic principals that suggest you move your center piece (the wood) either slightly off center or completely to the side. Try flipping it around to get a new look. Maybe add another small piece. Try to think in terms of levels when planting your scape. Tall in back, short in front will add depth to your tank.

Definitely get a background. I like black, makes the tank look simpler and tranquil.

Try lessening the duration of the light or feeding the fish less to help clear the algae.

20 gallon with a male betta, neons, glowlights, and red cherry shrimp. (work in progess) Recently added a few LIVE plants and driftwood, Woooohoooo!

A quad T5 is an insane amount of light, I am curious if you have trouble with algae?

Also it is true that scaping a tank with one side of the tank being more heavily scaped than the other does prove to be more visually appealing. Doesnt really matter if it is 60/40 or 70/30 one side needs to be a bit more scaped than the other.